A recurring thought which I hope to develop someday…
Americans are trained to worship democracy. But the brilliance behind the U.S. Consititution is not that some most people get a vote. The true political innovation was that the Founders put limits on what government could do. Those limits mean the people do not get to vote on everything.
We’ve all become accumstomed to having our opinions catered to. Although the elected politicians almost universally fail our expectations, they still invoke the rituals of democratic religion. Those who wish to sell us goods ask our opinion both as a method of improving their product and as a sales technique. Once we are engaged, we are open to persuasion.
That sales technique, when applied by poltiicians or democracy fetishists, leads us all to believe we can buy things that are not for sale. Or, if they are for sale, they are stolen goods. Anything assumed by the government but not granted under the Consititution is taken from the people. Washing the process with democracy doesn’t make it virtuous.